Sinkholes, slides endanger entire neighborhood in Tillamook

A neighborhood of seven homes overlooking the Tillamook River are banding together after extreme weather has caused their hillside to shift, sending bits of road, mud and trees onto their homes and barns.

It began Monday as a few little cracks on Burton Hill Road, just outside Tillamook. By Wednesday the cracks had collapsed into a quarter-mile series of sinkholes and creeping mud that put three homes at risk, pushed a barn off its foundation and left homeowners fearful of what will move next.

As the rains continue, they say only one thing is clear:

No one is coming to the rescue.

Morgan Kottre, 27, said she and her neighbors – some of them relatives – have been told by county, state and federal officials that they don’t qualify for assistance because Burton Hill Road and the lower Hillside Drive are private roads on private land. Same story from at least one insurance company. Kottre said a representative told one family the devastation qualifies as an “act of god,” which the insurer doesn’t cover.

“In theory, we could try to fight it,” she said, “but right now we’re just trying to fight the land.”

Storms over the past week that have brought flooding and landslides across northwestern Oregon. On Saturday afternoon, blizzard conditions closed three highways in Southern Oregon. The extreme weather has caused at least two deaths in Oregon and federal officials set early damage estimates at about $15 million.

Tillamook County was among the 13 counties where Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency. In fact, not far from Kottre’s home on Saturday night, the town of Oceanside was cut off as the only road out of town was closed due to a failed culvert.

Wettest day in Portland history causes landslides, floods

KGW.com Staff 8:14 p.m. PST December 7, 2015

(Photo: KGW)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Monday was the wettest calendar day in recorded history in Portland, and the rain is expected to stick around for days.

KGW meteorologist Matt Zaffino said nearly 2.7 inches of rain on Monday tied a record for one day, from 12:01 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. The previous record was set on Nov. 19, 1996. More rain is forecast for Monday night, and Zaffino said the record is sure to break.

The storm that caused floods, landslides, road closures and even a sinkhole is expected to bring its next wave of heavy rain on Tuesday, possibly during the evening commute.

People should expect delays in every mode of transportation in the metro area for the next several days, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

Authorities were offering sand bags to any area residents who need them.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesman Dylan Rivera called the weather an “extraordinary event that had extraordinary impacts.”

Rivera said 5.61 inches of rain have fallen so far this month, with three inches falling within a 12-hour period.

The December average for rainfall in the metro area is 5.49 inches.

KGW Meteorologist Rod Hill said said the worst of the storm has not even hit yet. That will likely happen on Tuesday night and continue into Thursday.

Residents have been left horrified after a 20ft sinkhole suddenly opened up on a housing estate built over an abandoned colliery.

The huge crater appeared above old mine workings at Craster Square in the Coxlodge area of Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, just before 11am today.

Dramatic pictures show the sheer size of the deep hole, which stretches the width of the road, and how it has left one lone car stranded on a driveway.

The huge 20ft sinkhole appeared on a residential street, in front of a set of garages (pictured), above an abandoned colliery at Craster Square in the Gosforth area of Newcastle upon Tyne just before 11am today. No one was injured but the site has now been cordoned off

No one was injured when the 20ft crater (pictured) suddenly appeared, although police and officials remain at the site this afternoon

The sinkhole was reported to the police by a resident called Doreen, who said she was sorting out her garage when she heard ‘rumbling’

Note: This bubble site is NOT 5 miles away from the sinkhole or Bayou Corne as is being falsely reported on other sites, but approx 3/4 mile. Google Earth Gator Gold Casino in Belle Rose, La. for full view.

The people of Bayou Corne can’t seem to catch a break. Just when they thought activity around the 27 acre sinkhole had gone quiet, bubbles started popping up closer to their homes.

People who live there say they are losing faith.

“There’s probably less than 20 percent who are here,” John Boudreaux, Director for the Assumption Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness, said. “Most of the residents have moved out.”

There are still signs of life on Bayou Corne, but the backdrop to this small community has changed drastically. Well-landscaped yards are covered by overgrown-grass and neglected shrubs. The water along this popular sportsman’s paradise sits still.

Dead tumbleweed now marks the entrance of Herman Charlet’s house. He’s all but given up.

The Assumption Parish, LA sinkhole continues to grow. The ground opened up on August 3, 2012 and residents were evacuated from their homes. Click here to see the photos from August 2012 until now.More >>

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Scientists: New Bubbles at Louisiana Sinkhole Site Could Signal Blast Risk

February 27, 2014

Authorities say state and parish agencies are testing to see whether newly discovered gas bubbles northeast of the Bayou Corne, La.-area sinkhole are tied to the swampland hole.

The Advocate reports the state Office of Conservation and contractor CB&I have taken samples of the gas bubbles to determine their source, though officials acknowledge the bubbles likely are connected to the sinkhole.

The new bubble site in Grand Bayou is about one-third of a mile north of La. 70 and La. 69, parish officials said. Most bubble sites tied to the sinkhole have been discovered in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou waterways and elsewhere farther to the west and south.

Previous sinkhole-related testing below Grand Bayou shows a 1- to 2-foot-thick gas layer exists in shallow sands under the new bubble site, said Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

More sinkholes open up in Britain

11:11 AM Friday Feb 21, 2014

Several cars that collapsed into a sinkhole in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in February 2014. Photo / National Corvette Museum/AP

A spate of sinkholes have opened up across the country as floodwater dissolves the underlying rock, while a “second wave” is likely to appear in the coming weeks as the rain stops and the ground begins to dry, the British Geological Survey warned yesterday.

The number of sinkholes reported has soared to six so far this month – many times more than the one to two that is typical across the whole of a normal year, experts said.

These have generally occurred as soluble rocks such as chalk, limestone and gypsum have been eroded by a sudden infusion of water from the heavy rainstorms which has made existing underground cavities bigger and causing the ground above it to collapse.

A house collapsed in Ripon this week when a sinkhole appeared following the erosion of the underlying gypsum.

This followed a particularly large 20ft deep sinkhole in a Hemel Hempstead garden on Saturday which forced the evacuation of about 20 homes.

“There has been a significant increase in sinkholes over the past few weeks and it’s reasonable to suggest that this is related to the increase in rainfall,” said Dr Vanessa Bank, of the British Geological Survey.

“How long this goes on for very much depends on the weather. But there is likely to be more rainfall and my personal opinion is that we are talking about weeks,” she added.

On Saturday, a huge sinkhole opened up at the side of a house in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Swallowing up half of the front lawn, it was 35ft wide and 20ft deep.

Last week, a hole as deep as a double-decker bus is high suddenly opened up in the back-garden of a house in South-East London, almost swallowing a child’s trampoline as the ground collapsed without warning.

Had the poor owner’s daughter been rushing out to play on the trampoline, she could have very easily have been seriously injured or even killed.

Dangerous: A 50ft-deep hole appeared in the central reservation on a section of the M2 in north Kent last week

Two weeks ago, there was a similarly narrow escape for a family living in High Wycombe, when, overnight, a deep hole appeared without warning in the driveway just next to the house.

This time the adult daughter’s car did end up buried at the bottom of the hole, thankfully, while there was no one in it.

And in Kent last week, motorists hoping to use the M2 were left fuming by the motorway’s temporary closure, after a substantial hole — 15ft deep — suddenly appeared in the central reservation. Again, no one was hurt but had the hole opened up just a few yards away, it is obvious what a different story it could so easily have been.

All of these holes are what the public call sinkholes and now, after weeks of heavy rain, they seem to be appearing with ever greater regularity. Hard statistics are difficult to find — not least because sinkholes that appear on farmland often go unreported — but having studied them for 35 years, I’d estimate that sinkholes are currently appearing at four-to-five times their normal rate.

Gone: A Volkswagen Lupo was swallowed up by this sink hole in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Brand new: Zoe Smith, 19, was given a replacement after the car was engulfed by the hole which developed outside her home

With more heavy rain forecast, I’d be surprised if we’ve seen the last sudden sinkhole of this winter.

Even when the rain does stop and warmer weather returns, for reasons that I’ll come to, there could be a second spate of them.

Strictly speaking — and as I work for the British Geological Survey I do need to be strict about these things — not all the big holes that have been appearing are sinkholes. Technically, a sinkhole is a hole that opens up when the surface layers collapse into a naturally made cavity. When the surface layers collapse into a cavity made by man — and at least two of the recent holes are in areas where mining has been carried out in the past — then it should be called a dene or crown hole.

But given that both types are caused by a collapse into an underground cavity and the end result — a large, potentially dangerous hole in the ground at the surface — is the same, for the sake of simplicity, let us call them all sinkholes.

Certainly, anyone suffering the tragedy of having their house fall into one won’t be worrying about the difference. Fatalities caused by sinkholes in this country are thankfully very rare, but a homeowner in Florida did die in exactly those circumstances only last year.

Risk: Gretel Davidson feared she would have to pay around £10,000 after a sinkhole twice the height of a double-decker bus appeared in her garden in Banehurst, South-East London

The sheer size of sinkholes and their sudden appearance without warning does make them extremely hazardous. This explains why in the superstitious distant past, their appearance was often linked to misfortune.

Some saw them as a direct route to Hell itself; one near Darlington that collapsed in the 12th century is called Hell Kettle and the rising groundwater in it steams in the winter.

Of course, it’s not the Devil but all the heavy rain that lies behind the sudden spate of sinkholes. Rainwater dissolves limestone easily because it gets acidified from carbon dioxide in the air and by passing through rotting vegetation or certain types of rock.

The water dissolves rocks such as chalk, limestone and gypsum, making existing natural underground cavities bigger. It also scours fine material out of existing cavities. In addition, it makes the surface layers of soil composed of such things as clay or gravel heavier as they become waterlogged.

Bit by bit, the cavity becomes a little bigger, the covering layers a little heavier until . . . snap . . . those covering layers no longer have the mechanical strength to span the cavity and suddenly they collapse into it, taking anything unfortunate to have been standing on the surface down with them.

Concern: A 35ft wide hole appeared underneath a home in Hemel Hempstead last week, prompting the surrounding properties to be evacuated

It’s no accident that sinkholes often seem to appear next to a fairly substantial piece of civil engineering, such as a house or road, rather than underneath the piece of civil engineering itself.

As long as we put roofs on houses and impermeable cambers on our roads, rainwater will be thrown off the things being protected. It’s often where that rainwater ends up — by the side of the road, by side of the house — that becomes vulnerable to sinkholes.

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